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| Image copyright DC COMICS |
The SPECTRE was created by JERRY SIEGEL and BERNARD BAILEY, and first appeared in MORE FUN COMICS #52 in 1940. As far as I'm aware, outside of SUPERMAN and SUPERBOY, Jerry Siegel never attempted to sue DC COMICS over the copyright of the character - or any of the others he created for them. Not so much profit in SLAM BRADLEY and the others, I guess.
Anyway, here's the cover of SHOWCASE #60 from 1966, when The Spectre made his Silver Age re-appearance.
17 comments:
Last year I met Joanne Siegel Larson, Jerry's daughter. I asked her specifically about the Spectre and she said yes, her dad created him to do stories he could not do with Superman since he was a good guy. Not only do I like the Spectre I love Murphy Anderson's art. In fact Murphy was also at the same convention and I asked him about the Atomic Knights. He said they never had an ending for the series it just sort of petered out. He did sign a copy of the Atomic Knights reprint for me though. I would love to get these Anderson stories as reprints but I'm not sure they were reprinted. They did the golden age stuff and the 70s Fleischer stuff.
I'm not familiar with The Atomic Knights, and outside of the two issues I've shown of The Spectre (and some reprint mags of Michael Fleisher's Spectre stories, plus some Golden Age reprints), I'm not all that familiar with The Spectre either. Shame on me! What I've never been able to understand is why Americans spell the word as 'specter', but revert to the U.K. spelling for the comicbook character.
"Spectre" was the preferred spelling, even in American English, until the mid-20th century. Maybe Siegel and Bailey created the character before the American variant became common. Or maybe they had delusions of grandeur, and thought that the British spelling seemed classy and sophisticated.
The word is not all that common, and I've seldom seen it, except for the comic book character, and the international criminal organization in James Bond movies, both of which use the "re" spelling.
Maybe Spectre is scarier. http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-michael-fleisher-and-jim-aparos.html?m=1
Who doesn't love seeing the Spectre turn evildoers into glass then smashing them?
I can understand the Bond spelling of Spectre because Fleming was British and each letter stood for a word, TC, but the comicbook character has always perplexed me. Mainly because comics usually render the word as 'specter' when using it in the ordinary sense - it only seems to revert to the 're' when referring to Siegel & Bailey's character.
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Thanks for the link, Phil - I'll check it out.
Have to say that I have never noticed the spelling issue on "Spectre" until now - The Spectre is one of my all time favourite characters, although I that was tested recently when DC turned Hal Jordan into the Spectre for a time then revamped him as a bearded guy etc etc. I seem to recall the "Atomic Knights" strips were reprinted in a dedicated DC Showcase reprint books and they formed part of the recent "Great Disaster" Showcase reprint book (with DCs "Hercules Unbound" strips etc).
I'll have to re-read my Michael Fleisher Spectre reprints and remind myself of the character. Maybe it's because he's got green in his costume that I've never really warmed to him. Nothing sectarian, but I've always had a hard time being impressed by green-garbed heroes, like Green Lantern and Green Arrow. (Although I liked Quicksilver, and his costume used to be green.)
The Michael Fleisher / Jim Aparo stories are excellent dark funny and an easy/quick read.
That's good to be reminded of, PM. (Have you ditched your McScotty identity?) Now if only I could remember which box they're in up in the loft.
Had to come up with a new GMail address and forgot darn it that;s my secret identity now blown!!! I'll consider doing a ,Mike Murdoch later and "kill" off PM!!
At least you're not wearing daft sunglasses like 'Mike' Murdoch did.
Glad you're still same old McScotty!!
'Old' being the operative word there, JP.
I knew nothing of the original Spectre when this first came out. I hadn't yet read my first JLA/JSA team up. But I'd seen the comic advertised in other DC comics and I was curious about it for no other reason than I thought that the character looked a bit "Batman-like". In the end, I convinced my cousin it would be a good buy when we went to the newsagents and then scrounged it off him when he's finished it!
Bet you wish you still had it now, eh, JP? Perhaps you still have it?
No, that went long ago when I sold my first collection back in 1980. Out of all of them, the only ones nobody seems to have heard of on the internet were the UK gold seal comic books ( similar to Top Sellers ) including a (TV) Space Patrol. Oh, and a b&w Bonanza (UK).
Probably cost a small fortune to replace these days, JP. Roll on that Lottery win, eh?
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